There are also a few antique construction and destruction equipment out in the field, as well as plows and hit-and-miss engines. They work by coasting, and not firing for every time the engine revolves, saving fuel. When the engine goes below a certain number of RPM's, the engine fires again, and waits, everything revolving and moving. If there is a load on the engine, it will fire more often, but if there isn't, it could coast for quite a while before firing again. One of these was running a saw used to make cedar shakes for roofing and siding.
They also have steam tractors that look like miniature steam locomotives. They use these to run the separator (look for the straw pile) and also to bail the straw, powering clutches with long belts, around fifty to seventy-five feet long. One was used in a lumber mill right next to the separator. The blade is around four feet in diameter, maybe bigger, and spins fast enough to cut you in half without batting an eye.... Watching the guys work so close to that blade makes you wonder how they feel, getting so close..... I wouldn't want to be there when a mistake happens....
It rained only at night, which made the show nice and unspoiled during the day, but made the entire grounds a mud-hole and impossible to get out of is you didn't have good tires, or four wheel drive. Luckily, we had both.
Bailing the stalks to use as straw...
Zach is around 5'8". His arms add around another foot and a half... Just for reference of size.
They weren't posing, I swear.
....So that means the wheel here is around seven feet tall, not including the traction spikes....
These buses were getting stuck left and right... and getting pulled out by tractors that had been pulling in competition the night before.... (and we think these two John Deere guys are twins or brothers or something...)
Apparently, there were only ~130 of these tractors made, only two survive to this day, and this is the only one of the two that still runs... A living piece of history.
Separating the wheat from the chaff...
